Yes, that’s right folks – you’re joining us for one more week full of panels, and one that’s the last Week In Panels for the foreseeable future.

Sad news is I got an email from Gavok earlier this week telling me he and David Brothers decided it was time to put 4th Letter out to pasture. Expect to see a farewell article from DB up in the very near future with details. Between This Week In Panels being a 4th Letter thing and not having a suitable blog of my own to fall back on, this means the end of ThWIP for the foreseeable future, too.

On the bright side, I’m joined for one last session of out-of-context images by Gaijin Dan, Matlock, and of course Gavok. Amusingly, Gaijin Dan’s panels also see the last of the long-running Naruto, which has me jokingly blaming the end of that series for the end of This Week In Panels.

It’s another Week in Panels, brought to you by 4th Letter and your host, Me!

This week, Me, er, I am backed up by Gaijin Dan, Matlock, The AnarChris, and Gavok. For Matlock’s sake, I’m hoping that this big DC Futures End thing is actually good – or at least halfway decent and not mind-bogglingly bad – because he very well appears to be reading through every single issue of it this month like a trooper.

You’ll have to ask him if it’s actually any good, though. I haven’t been reading it at all and I don’t think Gavok’s delved into them either outside what he normally reads.

Fortunately for you, you don’t have to read any of it if you don’t want to – all you have to do is check out the panels below! So let’s get to that, shall we?

It’s time for another edition of This Week in Panels (Belated Version)! This week I’m joined by Gaijin Dan, Matlock, TheAnarChris, and Gavok.

Gavok and Matlock decided to have a fun time with Black Widow and Punisher this week. As best I can figure, the two comics are telling the same story, and so the panels from those two comics show the same thing but from different angles drawn by different artists. It’s fascinatingly fun.

I also picked up Superior Spider-Man for the first time ever this week, though I saw it less as purchasing an issue of Superior Spider-Man and more as purchasing a prologue to the upcoming Edge of Spider-Verse because that’s what it was pretty much billed as. They weren’t kidding, either. I don’t know how critical the issue will be when the ball gets rolling for real, but it definitely feels like this is where the event kicks off.

Greetings, and welcome to a brand new edition of This Week in Panels, where brevity is the soul of comic reviews. And NOW(!), it’s time to kick things off with this brand NU reboot-that’s-totally-not-a-reboot edition.

As always, for those who are Nu-ly joining us, This Week in Panels works as following: The contributors take all the comics they’ve read for the week, and then pick out the one panel from each of those issues that best summarizes that comic. The two major rules being 1) No Splash Pages, and 2) Don’t pick a panel from the first or last page of the issue.

Other than that, it’s pretty much fair game!

Contributing this week as I take over from Gavok are “Marvelous” Matlock, “Dandy’” Gaijin Dan, “Grinnin’” Gavok himself, and myself, your new host, “Smilin’” Space Jawa.

Welcome to die! This week I have my usual crew of Matlock, Gaijin Dan and Space Jawa. Matlock decided to panelize the hell out of Amazing Spider-Man #1, representing all the various stories within.

This week brought the disappointing ends of two minis in What If? Age of Ultron and Origin II. What If features the most pyrrhic victory that proceeds to negate the more enjoyable issues of the mini (ie. the second, third and fourth issues). Then Origin II is a straight-faced version of that scene from Beerfest. Great art and the first issue with the bear is still totally sweet, but the only interesting thing to come out of it is the reveal that Sabretooth has a sister out there.

Yesterday, my badminton partner Chris Sims wrote a piece on the weekly comic tie-in Injustice: Gods Among Us, based on the upcoming game by Netherrealm Studios. For the most part, he and I disagree on it. I think it’s a fun series while he considers it one of the frontrunners for worst comic of 2013. The one thing we do agree on is the dire first three issues, though he certainly minds it a lot more.

The series tells the story of how Superman comes to take over the world in the name of the greater good, ultimately leading to a DC version of Civil War. Through the first three issues, we see the Joker devise a situation where after he shoots Jimmy Olsen in the head, he kidnaps Lois Lane and tricks Superman into killing her. He does this by dosing Superman with Scarecrow fear gas laced with kryptonite so that Superman thinks Lois is Doomsday and shoves her into orbit. And it turns out Lois is pregnant too. Then Joker blows up Metropolis. When in custody, Joker’s questioned by Batman and they argue over Superman’s integrity until the Man of Steel busts in and angrily puts his fist through Joker’s chest.

The whole “fridging of Lois” thing is what made me aware that the comic even existed, but I didn’t care to read it until seeing some panels from the fourth issue, where Green Arrow keeps Harley Quinn in custody himself so that Superman doesn’t execute her as well. Even Sims admits that that’s a well-written bit and has some positive things to say about the issues that follow. And yes, while I claim the series is worth checking out, I mainly mean AFTER the Joker plot.

That said, the discussion on the matter made me realize a state of comics that nobody really touches on. As unfun as Superman being tricked into killing his wife and unborn child is, I’m not all that offended by it because “fridging” or not, it’s a step that the writer kind of had to make based on years upon years of righteousness. It’s a fucked up thing, but it’s the double-edged sword that comes from the purity of comic book heroes. It definitely could have been pulled off better in this story, but it’s a necessary trope.

It makes me think about something Grant Morrison’s talked about during his Batman run. Over the decades, the way the Joker has been written has evolved into something nasty, both in the character’s context and in the writing context. He went from being a goofball obsessed with “boner crimes” to a man who’s killed more people than polio. He went from flying around in a clown-faced helicopter to cutting his face off and having it reattached like a Halloween mask. The explanation is that by figuring out the Joker and his crimes, Batman puts a cage over him. Joker has to think bigger and more twisted to escape the cage and Batman puts a bigger cage around that. It escalates and the next thing you know, Joker’s chopping his face up.

Every now and then, a writer will play with a superhero’s refusal to kill and see where that goes. Sometimes it leads to a hero deciding at the last second, “No, I can’t do that.” Sometimes they’ll be totally ready to do it until getting interrupted and realize later that it’s probably for the better. Then there are times when they really go through with it. Whether it’s a good story or a bad story, I don’t envy the writer who has to set up that plot development because you’re forced to go over the line.

When I think of superheroes who strictly don’t kill, the four who pop into my head are Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and Daredevil. Each and every one of them has had at least one story that shows just what it would take to make them kill. Most of the time it’s a non-canon story that can get away with it easily (ie. Injustice) while other times it’s a canon story meant to be part of the bigger picture of the serial storytelling.

Good stuff this week. I’m helped out by Gaijin Dan, Jody, Was Taters and Space Jawa.

In completely unrelated news, this Thursday is Rifftrax Live, where the MST3K guys will do a live performance that will be broadcast to movie theaters around the country. The movie in question? Manos: Hands of Fate, with a completely new set of riffs.

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